VietNamNet Bridge – While touch-screen smart phones are dominating the market, a lot of Vietnamese still favor old generation BlackBerries with QWERTY keyboard.

Tran Tien Long, a student of the Information Technology University and a member school of the HCM City National University, feels happy because he has bought a BlackBerry 8700, nearly brand new, at VND450,000 only. Meanwhile, the product was initially priced at VND3 million when it turned up on the market.

“The rich would choose gaudy models like iPhones, while technology students like me would choose high technology and high quality phone. BlackBerry 8700 has all necessary features, allowing to surf on Internet, check email,” Long said.

Especially, its design is original and it is much cheaper than the other feature phones available on the market which allow to make calls and messages only,” he explained, adding that VND450,000 is a very reasonable price for a high quality and durable product.

BlackBerry 8700, which is now very cheap and unfashionable, has been hunted by technology students thanks to its original design and useful features.

Four or five years ago, owning a BlackBerry was only a dream for students who could not afford its high price. However, in recent years, the Vietnamese market has witnessed the rise of touch-screen mobile phones, including iPhone and the Android-based smart phones.

As a result, the market share of the mobile phone models with physical key board, including BlackBerry, has been narrowed. This has made the BlackBerry models, including BlackBerry 9900 and older, become affordable to young people.

Unlike Long, Pham Viet Dung, who works for a company in district 10 in HCM City, with the monthly income of VND20 million, can afford the most modern smart phones. However, Dung still has decided to buy a BlackBerry Bold 9900, a second hand one, at VND5 million.

“The BlackBerry phone would be the alternative for me in case my touch-screen phone runs out of battery,” he explained.

“The biggest problem of touch-screen smart phones is that it runs out of battery quickly. I think BlackBerry is a good choice, because it has all necessary features of a smart phone, while its battery is strong, and the price is very reasonable,” he added.

According to Tran Duc Hai, nick name “Hai Cosovo”, who is considered an experienced “BlackBerry hunter” on Tinhte.vn technology forum, BlackBerry remains very attractive in the eyes of customers, from students to office workers and businessmen.

Hai said he can sell 5-7 BlackBerries a day, mostly the 8700, 83xx, 88xx, 9000, 9700, 9900 models. The buyers are the ones who don’t pay much attention to the appearance, but to the quality and the features of the phones.

Ngo Van Hoang, the owner of a mobile shop in district 3 in HCM City, said though touch screen mobile phones are the most favorite now, the shop still has used BlackBerries for sale. Especially, Hoang said the models have been selling very well because of the low prices.

“I’m sure a lot of people have iPhones. But very few people have BlackBerries. Therefore, your mobile phone is the original one in the world,” he said, explaining why people still favor the out-of-date mobile phone model.